


Let's just all get along

by limeta



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: BAMF Lily Evans Potter, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Indian James Potter, JK rowling?? i do not know her, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape Friendship, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, let's all just get along and have fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24897352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/limeta/pseuds/limeta
Summary: Lily Evans just wants all of her friends to get along.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape, Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter
Comments: 9
Kudos: 38
Collections: Expelli-gender! 2020





	Let's just all get along

**Author's Note:**

  * For [enchantedsleeper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/enchantedsleeper/gifts).



> i posted this june 24th 2020 but , because the thing gets revealed in september i'm changing the date because I CRAVE VALIDATION
> 
> Written for enchantedsleeper for this prompt: I would love some Marauders era fic with gender diverse characterisation - dealer's choice! Feel free to go with whatever headcanon or identity strikes your fancy. I would also be happy for the fic to feature some kind of redemption for Snape (or for him to just be a better person) if that's something that floats your boat. Not fussed about Peter Pettigrew - feel free to include or not include as you prefer :3
> 
> If you could write James (and any of the other characters you fancy) as explicitly POC that would also make me very happy!
> 
> DNW: Please no outing of characters against their consent. I don't mind if the fic touches on transphobia or transphobic behaviour but would prefer for it not to be a focus.

Lily’s final year at Hogwarts was going to be perfect. She was Head Girl, she was dating a somewhat emotionally matured James Potter (yes, she, too, was very surprised by the transformation), Severus and she hadn’t had any falling out because Lily had finally decided that seeing her classmates bully her best friend was too hard to stomach. She’d thought that they would stop, but seeing as they wouldn’t stop without intervention Lily Evans brandished her wand and the first thing she did was turn James into a needle and then threw him in a conjured haystack. Sirius jumped into the haystack to look for him, all while screaming: ‘’JAMES? BUDDY? Hang in there, mate, your buddy Sirius has got you.’’

Remus and Peter stood petrified while Lily waved her wand around and shouted: ‘’I have had enough of this. I pleaded with all of you to stop bullying Sev, but none of you cared to listen then. And I highly doubt you’ll listen now.’’

Severus’ smile seemed to widen the more Lily talked. It had been four versus one and he appreciated Lily helping him out. 

Remus and Peter cowered once faced with the tip of Lily’s wand and ire. Her eyes glowed like two killing curses aimed at them, while her hellish red hair promised them a world of pain if they messed with her about this. ‘’You are all adults! Oh my GOD, I cannot believe what immature boys you are still acting like!’’

‘’Snivelus started it!’’ Sirius kept looking for James the needle Potter in the conjured haystack. He was too panicked to find his best friend that he didn’t think to simply finite Lily’s magic. 

‘’Don’t call him that!’’ Lily berated. Severus trailed to her side and smiled smugly at the defeated Marauders. He was very happy to have Lily as a friend. 

‘’He shouldn’t have invented such a horrible name, then, if he didn’t want us to pick on him.’’ Sirius shot back fiercely. ‘’It’s a shitty name and it was made for teasing. Whoever made it up must be a complete and utter idiot.’’ He stuck his tongue out at Severus, whose smile seemed to widen. 

‘’Bold of you to assume, Black, that it was I who invented the name. I simply liked it the best out of all of the suggestions my friends made.’’ Severus said slowly, savouring the way Sirius reached the conclusion. He looked to Lily in horror. 

‘’No,’’ Sirius whispered, ‘’Lily, no. I thought you had TASTE.’’

Lily inhaled deeply and exhaled in the same manner. She looked just about ready to slap Sirius silly. ‘’Sev likes it and it’s very regal sounding.’’ She defended her invented name. 

‘’It’s a marvelous name. Some people just don’t have an eye for the finer things in life, Lily.’’ Severus’ eyebrows raised in a challenge, wanting to see if Severus would dare call him Snivelus again, knowing that Lily took offence as well. He didn’t dare. 

Remus and Peter slowly tried to flee, but Lily spelled them both immobile with quick and precise petrificus totaluses. ‘’Oh no you don’t! None of you are leaving until we settle this once and for all!’’

James Potter had turned himself back through ingenuity and willpower. After Sirius was done hugging him and telling him how worried he was for his health, James pointed at Severus and said: ‘’Listen here you slimy git, unhand my precious Lily pad from your Slytherin-y ways.’’ Then he sighed dreamily. ‘’Lily, truly, the most beautiful name. It’s okay that you didn’t have inspiration for Snape’s name - he’s not very inspiring - but you struck gold with Lily.’’ He clasped his hands together and sighed lovingly. 

‘’Bold of you to assume,’’ Severus began and thus had every Marauder present truly reassess their sanity, ‘’that Lily invented her name. Her suggestion was Beatrice, but I told her it sounded a bit too Divine Comedy.’’

‘’It turns out I’ve got a great-grandmother named Lily so everything fit.’’ Lily added. She grinned wickedly at the Marauders. Then that grin slid off when she remembered why she had intervened in the first place. ‘’All of you need to apologize to each other.’’

‘’WHAT?’’ Sirius’ outrage was well noted. Peter and Remus sputtered once Lily took off her magic. James tilted his head and whined that he didn’t understand why they had to apologize when both sides were being horrible to each other. 

‘’You call fighting back horrible?’’ Severus sneered, balling his fists. ‘’You’ve got some nerve, Potter.’’

Lily refused to let them all fight. ‘’No, no. I am much too old to keep allowing this nonsense to continue. Everybody apologise.’’

Under duress and Lily vowing to turn them into gello and put them under a thermal lamp in one of the Green Houses for Herbology, the Marauders and Snape had no other choice but to apologize. 

When this was done Lily swore on their lives (not hers, they all noted) that if they didn’t be civil to each other she was going to make their lives hell. ‘’Don’t think I won’t.’’ With those parting words she got up to James, kissed him, and then left dramatically. Not even Sirius had a thing to fault in her exit. 

* * *

Lily was a simple girl with simple dreams. She didn’t entertain ideas of grandeur or the impossible. No, the thing she wanted most was to see her boyfriend James sloshed out of his mind alongside her best friend Severus, whom she knew for a fact was hilarious when drunk. So, now that her friends were all being civil to each other, she initiated stage two of her Have The People Dear To Me Actually Tolerate Each Other plan. It was her most ingenious plan yet. They didn’t call her the brightest witch of her age for nothing!

Remus ate chocolate and scribbled down notes for NEWTs. Lily inched towards him in the Common Room. He was the weakest link and the first one that would yield to her plan. 

Once Remus said ‘okay’ Peter would follow through because he was a pushover, only then would she target James, knowing that he’d say yes because they were dating - Sirius would begrudgingly accept because James had - and then Snape would accept when he knew that that was what everyone wanted and not just a plot for a deviant prank. 

Lily rubbed her hands together and set to work. 

* * *

The circumstances that led up to this fantastic moment were not important. The important bit to remember and understand here was that James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Lily Evans, and Severus Snape were sloshed, demolished, and laughing at everything in their vicinity – not even because this was funny. Oh no. It was just the gallon of firewhisky they had inside of them that made even the most innocuous matter hilarious.

Severus was blinking. He leaned on Lily and mumbled about how much he loved her and that if it weren’t for her he wouldn’t know what to do with all of the dresses his mother was buying him: ’’She’s still a bit in denial, you know.’’ He explained flippantly.

Lily nodded. She could relate: ’’Petunia has been a nightmare since she figured out she was no longer the only girl in the family. ’’ there was so much exasperation in her words that it was unbelievable. Severus leaned harder on her, practically embedding his chin into her shoulder. Lily sighed. She looked towards the rest of the gang.

Sirius was holding court and sauntering about the room of requirement with a near-empty glass of fireswhisky. Remus was half paying attention and half dozing off. James, Lily looked harder, was lying down on a rug and staring up at the ceiling.

’’James!’’ Lily called out. She didn’t want to stand up and inconvenience Severus. It was kind of like disturbing a napping cat.

’’What?’’ James asked. His words slurred. When Lily didn’t answer he tried to stand up, failed, and complained: ’’Being drunk sucks. I’m never doing this again.’’ His voice turned needier, ’’It’s not fair for me to be on the floor while Snivelus is cuddling up to my girlfriend.’’ When no one added anything to that, he continued, outraged: ’’I didn’t expect Severus to be able to drink so much for such a little guy, sweet Godric!’’

’’I’ve inherited my alcoholic father’s liver, Potter.’ Severus laughed. He was the only one that found this funny.

Sirius laughed, but at something unrelated: ’’Remus, I can’t settle on whether being a dog is more my style or being human is and you’re out here asking me if I’ve picked a gender?’’ he wheezed with laughter and soon drained the glass empty.

Remus attempted to shrug: ’’Listen, Sirius,’’ he hiccupped, ’’I’m just trying to wrap my head around this one moment I’m a bloke one minute I’m not thing.’’

’’Being a dog has really opened up my horizons, Remus. Now that’s a life. No NEWTs, no mothers who are out for blood and controlling your entire life, no pureblood elitism. Dogs just don’t give a shite about the gender binary in the animal kingdom, and I’ve done some digging and there are actual people in the world who agree with me! Gender is out – anarchy is in!’’

’’How is gender related to anarchy?’’ Remus asked. Then he thought about it for a bit and resumed: ’’I mean I see your point, Sirius. Certainly, gender roles are this archaic and limiting construct which people cling to because they worry that if we just stop upholding it, we will devolve into anarchy.’’

’’Devolve?’ Sirius shook his head no and exclaimed for all to hear, ’’No, no! Anarchy is not something we devolve to, Remus. Tsk tsk, my dude. Anarchy is something we strive towards!’’ Sirius was the type of drunk that got giddy and liked to hold revolutionary speeches.

Remus blinked. He tried to nod along. ’’I’m happy for you, either way. You sound like my mother a bit.’’ He confessed. ’’She gets so heated and riled up whenever she talks about our ancestors during Black history month. Apparently she doesn’t agee that it should be talked about only one month a year.’’ Remus agreed. ’’It shouldn’t just get forgotten or side-lined.’’

Sirius burst into laughter.

’’What?’’

’’Did I ever tell you that it took me a full hour of trying to explain to Walburga that Black history month wasn’t celebrating our family history?’’

Lily interrupted: ’’You have! At the end she didn’t believe you and went on trying to talk about pasty white members of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.’’

’’She explained our whole genealogy to me and I can count you the last names all on one hand how much inbreeding was done.’’ Sirius shook his head in horror.

James chose this moment to speak up: ’’Lilss~’’

’’Yeah buddy?’’

’’My parents love you~’’

’’That’s a bit weird, James. We haven’t even met yet.’’ Lily chuckled awkwardly and looked towards her drowsy friend Severus. ’’You OK, bud?’’ Severus nodded.

James popped the p: ’’YeP, they love you.’’

Sirius screamed out a laugh because he knew not of volume control when he drank. ’’Mr and Mrs Potter have heard this guy talk about you nonstop for yearsss, Lily!’’ He rubbed his hands together. ’’I think you might be the very first person that Indian parents might be looking forward to meeting. James tells me that culturally speaking they’re very difficult to impress.’’

’’YeP.’’ James confirmed. ’’What Sirius says.’’

Lily buried her head in her hands and whispered that she couldn’t believe what kind of idiots she hung around with.

’’OOOoh.’’ Severus’ brain finally caught up with the conversation and he opened his eyes and explained: ’’You know a similar thing happened with my parents meeting Lily. You know she’s the perfect human being when Jewish parents don’t find a single mistake about her. I think they called you the most polite goy they’ve ever met.’’

Lily was turning as red as her hair, growing more flustered by the minute.

’’If my parents weren’t pieces of shite, I’m sure they’d fall head over heels about you, too.’’ Sirius said.

’’My parents said that Lily is very nice.’’ Remus said. ’’They met at the station.’’ He snorted then and said: ’’It appears that Lily is the ultimate daughter-in-law.’’

This got the best reaction out of all of the boys present. They howled with laughter and began trying to compliment Lily on how smart she was and funny and that she truly was the perfect human being.

’’I did not expect this to be Lily Praise class, but I suppose I have no other choice but to endure.’’ She said with a smile. ‘’You are all finally getting along.’’

‘’Huh, it appears that the only things that needed to happen in order to stop our feud was alcoholic ingestion and realising that making fun of Lily for being perfect is something we have in common.’’

‘’I didn’t even know Black knew the word ‘ingestion’.’’

‘’I didn’t know you could drink so much.’’

‘’Hey,’’ James asked, from the floor still, ‘’where’s Peter, you guys?’’ Then amended, ‘’and perfect girlfriend Lily?’’

‘’Infirmary.’’ Lily reminded her spaced out boyfriend. ‘’Quidditch accident, remember. Bludger hit him straight in the nose.’’

‘’Riiight.’’

‘’I call that an improvement.’’ Severus snorted snidely. He didn’t think highly of Peter. 

‘’We should make this a thing.’’ Remus suggested. Then when everybody fixed him with confused glances he gestured the lot of them and repeated: ‘’Let’s meet up more often.’’

‘’We’re graduating in two days, Lupin.’’

‘’An  _ out of Hogwarts _ thing, then, Snape.’’

Severus nodded his head left-right and had to concede the fact that that didn’t sound like such a bad thing after all. ‘’As long as we get to make fun of Lily.’’

‘’Oh yeah for sure.’’

‘’Of course, dude.’’

‘’Lily deserves it.’’

‘’But you gotta tell us really embarrassing kid Lily things, too, then. We need new material.’’

Lily rolled her eyes. Lovingly she said. ‘’I’m surrounded by fiends.’’

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the expelli-gender! fic exchange which was done to show support for trans people all across the world who like Harry Potter.  
> Hopefully I've done well with the characters because the Marauder-era characters aren't my usuals. If you've made it this far, leave a little comment and take care~


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